TPM - "Wow, It Gets Bigger" - more on the Russian mole/spy story from last PM

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wow-it-gets-bigger

By JOSH MARSHALL Published JANUARY 26, 2017, 12:45 PM EDT

Last night I noted that a top Russian spy who is the number two person in the FSB department which allegedly oversaw the US election hacking operation had been arrested and charged with treason. Was he a sacrificial lamb and olive branch to Trump? A way for Putin to claim that his spy services had perhaps gone rogue? Or was he suspected of being a source to US intelligence? People who fall from grace in Putin's Russia are often dealt with with trumped up criminal prosecutions. But treason is a special charge.

Well, now we have reports that Sergei Mikhailov is suspected of being a US asset at the heart of Russian intelligence.

The report is from The Moscow Times, a respected English language publication. But the report appears to rely on a report in Novaya Gazeta.

From the Moscow Times ...
A top cybersecurity specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday reportedly on suspicion of leaking information to the U.S. intelligence community — a bombshell accusation that, if true, would mean Washington had a spy in the heart of Russia’s national defense infrastructure.
Here's the additional detail ...
According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” which the American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect identified last September as “an information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.

snip...more...the plot thickens

[marybourg]

1. And who gave him up? nt.

[GliderGuider]

4. My money is on Flynn. nt

[Sunny05]

15. Whoa.

I was thinking "Whoa" as soon as I saw your subject line. Then I looked and saw it was you, which I say b/c of another theory you have shared and that I think is spot on.

Okay ... so ... did Flynn out this Russian guy (or these Russian guys) in attempt to make it look like Flynn is actually on his own country's side, working with Russian ops who are supposedly on U.S. side? Or, do you think, is it more blatant than that, that Flynn may be in a plea deal arrangement? Other?

Thanks.

[dgibby]

6. Maybe someone who owes Putin a favor? n/t

[Calista241]

46. They probably just figured it out.

Blackmail material isn't useful if everyone already knows it.

The number of people that had knowledge of the specifics of any such material had to be infinitesimally small.

[TheFrenchRazor]

50. who, indeed. nt

[blm]

2. Trump and Flynn already outed CIA assets to Putin.

.

[Fast Walker 52]

35. when?

[blm]

48. As soon as they could, apparently

I'm not putting it past them. They would have had the info since the beginning of the transition.

[DURHAM D]

3. So, if Washington had a spy in Putin's operation that

elevated Trump and tried to destroy Clinton does that mean that our 16 Intelligence agencies, along with the FBI, wanted Trump to be President also?

Does misogyny trump everything?

[KittyWampus]

7. No, it means someone outed this guy. Flynn? Tillerson now that he's confirmed?

[DURHAM D]

8. Your response means nothing with regard to

the question of whose intelligence agencies were running the elevate Trump, trash Hillary programs. I assume it was both countries.

[Fast Walker 52]

37. maybe but this guy may have been an informant more than someone working on our behalf

[Sunny05]

16. I'm wondering

and see above posts ... if Flynn outed this guy under pressure -- say, if in plea deal.

[Lucinda]

5. I'm going to need a spreadsheet to keep track of all this!

[madaboutharry]

9. Are we living in a John Le Carre novel?

Josh Marshall is asking if a US asset within Russian intelligence was betrayed by someone within Trump's circle who was in on the intelligence briefings.

If that is true, we no longer have a country.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. I am going to have to diagram your sentence into some sort of logic chart!

I've lost the plot. Robert Ludlum must be rolling over in his grave!

[etherealtruth]

11. Maybe ... possibly, a Nelson DeMille Novel (The Charm School comes to mind)

[NBachers]

39. Remember in Charm School when the American agent pumped bullets into Lenin's body?

[etherealtruth]

40. No, I will have to look into it ... I read the Charm School when it came out (long ago)

I remember the brunt of the story but many details remain fuzzy

[NBachers]

42. its not that far into the book, if I remember right.

[eleny]

14. Flynn, Manafort, Bannon

Each has to have his own circle of loyalists who could do the deed.

[Sunny05]

17. Good Qs and probably so. nt

[Ilsa]

22. Trump or Bannon or Manafort, I bet.

Is manafort in the Admin? He's not cleared for top security breifings, is he?

[madaboutharry]

25. He was still "around" after his supposed removal.

He also owns an apartment in Trump Tower.

Further, does anyone really believe this cabal isn't telling each other everything?

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

41. You mean like a bunch of...

... BRAGGARTS?

[Ilsa]

44. I'm wondering if they've hooked up with Alexandr Dugin.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8303221

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8542216

[uponit7771]

24. +1, I thought this was going to happen quick. The second the Intel Report said the Russians hacked..

... the state and local election boards I knew we were proper fucked

[pnwmom]

12. I wonder if this guy could have been one of the insiders Christopher Steele

was using as a source for his dossier.

[get the red out]

13. My gut says probably

Amazing coincidence.

[Cracklin Charlie]

18. Kick

[Botany]

19. Did Flynn or some other Trump person or persons "give them up" to Putin?

This was a coup.


**********

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2017/01/23/russians-suspected-hacking-local-dems/96965824/

Russian hackers have been accused on the national level with interfering with the U.S. presidential election by getting into the Democratic National Committee’s website as well as that of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington.

While no one can prove beyond doubt that Russians also were involved in the local hack job, two hackers left “calling cards” with Russian email addresses on the local websites in an apparent gesture of contempt or braggadocio, Ginnebaugh said. Green Bay police were notified and have forwarded information to the FBI, she said.

Ginnebaugh said she was stunned when a computer security consultant told her that Russians may have been involved

[workinclasszero]

20. Maybe they are cover for Putin...sacrificial lambs

To lull the CIA and the deep state to slumber again over here?

To convince them that Trump isn't his puppet, it was just a couple of rogue actors.

Wonder if they will buy it?

[BadgerMom]

21. I don't buy it

They would have to insensate to buy it.

[workinclasszero]

26. I hear you but Comey the director of the FBI

Threw the election to Putin/Trump so who knows what's really going on huh?

[mn9driver]

23. If I was the CIA and worried that Trumpers were passing my stuff to the Russians

I would put bits of fake information into briefings for different people.

Then I would sit back and wait to see what happened. Once the Russians acted, I would know exactly who did it, depending on who the Russians arrested.

[friendly_iconoclast]

27. IOW, a 'canary trap', or 'barium meal test'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap

[uponit7771]

30. +1

[MissKat]

28. so...maybe this is bait and switch?

Whatever this is that's happened, it stinks. Something seems very off about the whole story.

Just like the election. Something was so very wrong.

Theresa May says England might not share sensitive information if the US returns to torture.

I wonder how long it will be before the US is the country left out in the cold.

I hope our agents in Russia have made for their bolt holes and gotten out. They're not safe anymore.

[uponit7771]

29. I bet this is what they've done already, MiniPoots admin has SHOWN to be a bunch of half asser's

... so I don't trust them one bit to get ahead of that type of thinking and sit back for a second and keep quiet.

Nope

They'd squeal as soon as they could, plus this guy looks like he was pretty high up in the IT hiarchy so they had to get rid of him vs doing counter intel.

This is a decent piece of info, this wasn't just some mid level no one who knew nothing

[workinclasszero]

33. If I was the CIA, NATO, EU, Britain, Australia, Japan...etc

They share intel with us and the next day it's on Putin's desk, capiche?

[lostnfound]

53. I was thinking that too, which is more optimistic than thinking that

Putin is tying up loose ends on his own project by getting rid of one who, although on his team, failed to cover their tracks, thereby also giving deniability.

A story line for the twitler cabal to eventually use as well.

[Liberal In Red State]

31. Nothing will come of this. The fix is in we have to live with Drumpf for at least 4 years - could be

longer if he messes with voting in all 50 states in his hunt for voter fraud. I am extremely disappointed - mad at the Democrats and President Obama for not getting this information out when the voting public could have and should have known! We are doomed to 4 years of the orange ass taking a wrecking ball to all things liberal, progressive.

[gordianot]

32. No 5th man here probably more than a dozen.

Given that Watergate had a darker side and at least 40+ convictions resulted, there must be dozens of possibilities in this mess. Are there any crowd photos from Trump's cheering section at the CIA Wall visit?

[Hekate]

38. Trump brought his own claque. I don't know think the CIA allows crowd photos as such.

So I don't know that there's photo evidence.

[Hekate]

34. KnR

[BeekeeperInVermont]

36. "Fresh Air" today

features an interview with Luke Harding, Moscow bureau chief for The Guardian in which the infamous dossier and other meddling by the Russians are discussed. Very interesting. [link:http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/|

[irisblue]

43. it was a most excellent discussion indeed.

[NewJeffCT]

45. can you sum

for those of us at work?

Thanks

[Hekate]

49. I caught parts of it while on the road, and scribbled his name on a pad I keep in the car....

It was fascinating. Must go look up his books.

[NewJeffCT]

47. hopefully he managed to send somebody a copy

of the "pee pee tape" and other compromising stuff before he was captured/outed.

[Generator]

51. All my peeps on twitter

Are saying Trumpiescum is going to introduce lifting sanctions on Russia very soon. Update unilaterally of course. Putin gets the money (oil) for nothing/Trump gets the chicks for free.

The useful idiot is showing his hand.

[DeminPennswoods]

52. This is serious stuff, treason TBH

Marshall is implying that someone close to Trump who was receiving the security briefings on the Russian hacking operation outed a US intelligence asset they had deep within the FSB. Could it be Flynn? He was known to be on the phone with Russia days before and day of the sanctions announcement and expulsion of the Russian contingent. He was also part of the security briefings.

[mopinko]

54. can we extradite him?

not really joking. is there any way to get him out of russia? covers are already blown. info it out there.
so let's just claim him, and being him over here.